Romancing the Stone

1984  PG  COMEDY  1h 46min

CAST— Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito, Zack Norman, Alfonso Arau, Manuel Ojeda

MUSIC— Alan Silvestri  DIRECTOR— Robert Zemeckis

     A film that is definitely hard to categorize in any one genre, Romancing the Stone can be called a pseudo-romantic action comedy. Calling upon beloved characters from the past the film’s modern characters become that much more endurable. Kathleen Turner plays the Lauren Bacall-ish leading lady, a somewhat timid romance novelist whose idea of the perfect man can be found within the pages of one of her manuscripts. In Colombia Turner’s sister has been kidnapped and is in dire need of a treasure map that has come into Turner’s possession. Off Turner heads to Columbia where she meets a mix of Humphrey Bogart and Indiana Jones in Michael Douglas, a gun toting jack-of-all-trades who turns out to be a treasure-seeker himself. They must evade Colombian police, survive the elements and step over Danny DeVito in an adventure that only a true romantic could survive. The film has many delightful moments but parents may wanna examine first, despite the rather tame PG rating.

OUR RATING— ** ½

FOLLOWED BY— The Jewel of the Nile (1985)